Research: How a chicken makes a good egg

Nanostructures and a binding protein create a shell strong enough to protect a chick but soft enough for it to hatch. Birds have benefited from millions of years of evolution to make the perfect eggshell – a thin, protective biomineralised chamber for embryonic growth that contains all the nutrients required for the growth of a baby chick. Now, scientists at McGill University, Montreal, Canada have found what exactly gives bird eggshells these unique features and they believe the findings cou